


consume

by tomatocages (kittu9)



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Canon Compliant, Frustration, Gen, Season/Series 01, Slice of Life, Soup, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-25
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-12-03 13:19:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/698696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittu9/pseuds/tomatocages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team makes soup and Wally eats most of it. Artemis is inexplicably angry. Set early in season one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	consume

“Wow, okay, first off,” Wally said, as if Artemis wasn’t already about to punch him (as if Artemis wasn’t always about to punch him; Zatanna and Robin kept giggling about how it was practically a love language, which made Artemis want to wage a goddamn war), “I don’t care who you are or where you grew up, you cannot count opening a can of soup as ‘cooking.’ And secondly, if you don’t sauté the aromatics—I’m looking at you, hotness—you are disrespecting how delicious this soup could be.”

The sad thing was, M’gann looked like she was taking notes. Artemis, meanwhile, was hungry and had grown up on a mismatched diet of off-brand hot pockets, congee, and homemade pho. Sautéing didn’t figure into any of it. She was unimpressed with whatever came out of Wally’s mouth next, unless he offered to cook for the rest of the team.

“Well, I guess if you want something done right,” Wally announced, and allowed M’gann to tie her apron around his neck. At that, Artemis really did punch him, but he weaseled just far enough away that it was more like a tap than a hit. He spun on his heel, overbalanced, and knocked into the edge of the counter, a beautiful smooth train wreck, which made her feel kind of better. 

“Ow,” he said, serenely, and proceeded to dice an onion. Robin was sitting on the counter by the time Wally reached for the celery, and Kaldur had stopped meditating or whatever it was he did when he wasn’t hanging out with the rest of the team in order to stare unblinkingly at the cutting board. (Artemis was both creeped out by and jealous of Kaldur’s unblinking stare. She wondered if it was an Atlantean thing or just a Kaldur thing, the ability to appear interested and unfazed by the most mundane things. It probably had more to do with the fact that he wasn’t from around here.)

“Food is serious business,” Wally said, and she could kind of tell he wasn’t joking; his mouth had that old smirk, but the rest of his face was pinched and quiet. 

The smell of the vegetables sang out as they hit the oil in the pan, and Artemis swallowed against her hunger, the way her father had taught her: after a minute, the desire faded back down. 

She sat and watched, though, with the others, as Wally added this or that and didn’t measure once. And it wasn’t very long at all before he gave the pot a final, authoritative stir and announced that it was done. 

Everyone served themselves; Artemis was conscious of taking less than she wanted, less than she might have deserved, because she knew Wally was hungry too and couldn’t bear the burden half so well as her. She wondered if she’d regret it, or if Wally would be insufferable, all the way through Kaldur’s blessing. (Artemis always thought about suffering when she heard someone praying; it was a habit.)

The soup tasted unfamiliar, but good; and it been a long time since someone had cooked for her, even if Wally hadn’t really done it for her. 

The team ate in silence; when they finished, Artemis washed the dishes and M’gann dried them. The boys drifted away, in the slow way of someone who felt obligated to help clean up but who also did not want to help clean up, until only Wally was left, hanging on the door of the refrigerator and eating string cheese.

Artemis drained the water from the sink and tried not to feel angry with Wally for not being satisfied; but sometimes he made her furious, with the easy way he expected things to go his way. 

She was deep enough in her own mind that M’gann reached out to her and asked if everything was all right; Artemis was annoyed enough with herself that she let M’gann reach out. 

“I'm fine,” Artemis said, ignoring the way Wally was watching them, even as he opened another string cheese packet. “Let's go upstairs. I’ll let you paint my nails.”


End file.
